Episode 29 — Group Policy: Security Settings and Enforcement
Group Policy is one of the most powerful management tools in the Windows ecosystem, and this episode shows how it translates governance into automation. You’ll learn how policies are stored in Active Directory, linked to organizational units, and processed in a predictable order that determines precedence. We break down the major categories—administrative templates, security settings, and preferences—and explain how they control passwords, firewalls, scripts, and software deployment. By mastering the flow of policy inheritance, you’ll understand how a single setting can affect hundreds of machines in moments.
The episode then shifts to troubleshooting and enforcement, explaining how tools like gpresult, the Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP), and event logs reveal where configuration drift occurs. You’ll also learn how attackers abuse misconfigured GPOs to persist or escalate privilege, and how administrators can detect those anomalies through change monitoring. Practical insights tie each concept to exam objectives, illustrating how Group Policy becomes both a strength and a weakness depending on execution. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.
